Ó Sé: Idle Rebels left at a disadvantage

Tomás Ó Sé believes Cork are seriously and unfairly disadvantaged by the structure of the All-Ireland championship.

The Kerry defender says the county’s four-week delay between their Munster final win over Clare and the August Bank Holiday weekend All-Ireland quarter-final does them no good.

“I think the fact Cork have to wait five weeks for a game is wrong,” said the An Ghaeltacht man. “I don’t agree with the way the system is worked at all.

“You could argue about it all day. It would be great to have a Champions League-style format where players and teams have games every two weeks.

“Cork turned us over in the Munster championship, they go on and win the Munster championship and then they have to wait four weeks for a match.

“I don’t think it’s of any benefit to Cork to win a Munster championship, apart from winning it. Obviously, I’d kill to win a Munster championship and we’d love to have won but then we’d be facing the same problem as Cork.”

Unlike Munster and Connacht, Ó Sé believes the timing and size of the Leinster and Ulster championships aids their provincial winners in the All-Ireland series.

“I think the way the Leinster and Ulster championships are run is way better for the teams involved.

“Dublin seemed to have games every two or three weeks or whatever team is winning in Leinster or Ulster. No matter how much training the likes of Cork do now, it’s no substitute for championship football, in terms of sharpening you up. That’s the problem.”

It baffles Ó Sé why the Munster championship is started and finished so early.

“To a lesser extent, in the qualifiers, you see how a regularity of games sharpens you up. We’d be expecting to be sharper against Clare the next day — and we’ll have to be — because of two games in two weeks.

“In Munster and Connacht, because of the lack of teams numerically and quality in the province, it’s way more difficult when a team comes out of it.

“We started in May. Why is the Munster championship started in May when the winners aren’t out until the first weekend in August and after maybe only two games in Munster?

“The hierarchy don’t want the provincial championships scrapped and I don’t want them to be either but is there some way they can be incorporated into a Champions League style where every team is playing every two weeks.”

Meanwhile, Ó Sé’s team-mate Darran O’Sullivan is refusing to dismiss the challenge of Clare on Saturday after losing to them as an U21 in 2007.

“Yeah I was injured that day, I broke my hand and was just out of the cast so couldn’t play. That’s it exactly though, they proved it against us that day.

“You have to be prepared for every game. Look at Westmeath, they nearly could and should have beaten us.”